Paddy Ellis – Lightning Ridge Opal Miner, 2013 by Adam Knott

Artist's statement

Paddy is sitting in the kitchen of the shanty hut he has called home for more than fifty years. While other miners have become millionaires, Paddy has failed to strike it rich, barely surviving on the few opals he has mined from his claim. My goal was to show the exhaustion and frustration that Paddy has suffered in the opal mining fields for most of his adult life. Paddy and his kitchen are exactly how you see them… tired and old.